Movement Is at the Heart of Scientific and Technological Change
The body, movement and gesture are at the heart of many important technological and scientific developments that are reshaping our lives. Choreographers and dancers, with their knowledge and insight about the possibilities of human movement, are ideally positioned to contribute their creative and artistic talents to the development of this emerging digital landscape.
Below you will find 16 videos that provide specific examples of how advances in interface design, robotics, medical devices, augmented reality, gaming, mobile computing, virtual worlds, fashion and other fields are connected through their increasing reliance on the body and movement.
1) Shadow Reaching
Shadow Reaching, from researchers at the University of British Columbia, offers an innovative way to interact with large display systems. We've progressed from basic keyboards and mouse clicks to interaction design that requires engagement from different parts of our bodies:
Drawings in 3D space are converted into furniture with the aid of a motion capture system -- from Front Design:
4) Swarm Robotics
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University are developing shape-shifting miniature robots, now in the prototype stage, which can transform into any type of object:
5) Gestures Control Robot
In this demonstration from The University of Tokyo, the gestures of a user control the direction and rotation of a robot:
6) Agile Robot with Animal-Like Characteristics
The Big Dog robot, from BostonDynamics, navigates a wide-range of terrain with agility:
Also watch Hod Lipson's TED Talks video about self-aware robots that conduct their own experiments to determine an optimal means of locomotion.
7) Thought-Controlled Wheelchair
An illustration of a brain-machine interface (BMI) that enables a wheelchair to be controlled by thoughts alone (developed by a group of engineering students at the University of Illinois who created The Audeo):
Also watch the Brainloop video that shows how a brain-machine interface can be used to navigate Google Earth.
8) EEG Reading as Computer Interface
Emotive Systems developed headgear that monitors EEG (Electroencephalography -- electrical activity in the brain) activity that is used as input to control an on-screen avatar:
9) Low-Cost, Wholebody Motion Capture
A demonstration, from SIGGRAPH 2007, of a low-cost motion capture system that does not require external devices or signal sources:
10) Game Controllers with Haptic Feedback
The Novint Falcon is a force-feedback game control system that adds the sense of touch to online interactions:
Infrared range sensors embedded in a headband are used to provide participants in this proof-of-concept experiment with information about approaching nearby objects that they cannot see:
12) Motion Input Controls Mobile Devices
Motion used to play Quake on iPod Touch:
And here's a video demo of how the KEYnetik RockNScroll motion input application is used to control a Nokia N95 hand-held unit.
13) Walking in Virtual Environments
The CyberWalk platform is an omni-directional walking system for simulating natural walking movement in virtual worlds. The following video, with no audio, demonstrates how this process works:
14) Augmented Reality Brings Gaming to Real World
The traditional Pac Man game is now transformed into an augmented-reality competition that consists of real players:
Also, visit LocoMatrix to see another video example of outdoor, GPS-based augmented-reality gaming.
15) Vest Transmits Emotional States Over Internet
Hug over a Distance is a vest worn by a user that transmits emotional states over the Internet:
The Kinetic Interface blog on Great Dance starts with the premise that by focusing on the body and movement we can better understand, engage with, and contribute to many of the technological and scientific changes that are reshaping our daily lives.
To share stories and ideas, offer feedback, and ask questions, please email Doug Fox.
